On the Other Side
by the general girl
Summary: For week one of sasusaku month, alternate universe. Six different verses of Sasuke and Sakura.
1. black coffee

**title:** black coffee**  
>for:<strong> SasuSaku Month, Day 2.  
><strong>theme:<strong> Alternate Universe  
><strong>prompt:<strong> Manipulate  
><strong>note:<strong> So I have another version of this, with a...happier ending? But I like the original better. If anyone wants to see the other version though, just say so and maybe I'll post it up somewhere by itself.

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><p>"Hello."<p>

The woman sits across from him, pink hair held haphazardly in a messy braid, a grey scarf hiding the slim white column of her throat. A cup of coffee sits steaming in front of her. He notes that the white mug is slightly chipped on the handle, and so is her deep blue nail polish.

Sasuke nods in greeting, before turning his attention back to the book in his hands. His own cup of tea has gone cold now, but he barely notices.

He only has time to read three more sentences before the light scent of lavender invades his senses. He looks up; two fingers automatically sliding his reading glasses back up the bridge of his nose.

She is peering into his nearly empty cup, a wrinkle decorating her forehead. She is much too close.

"You should ask for a refill."

Sasuke shrugs once, before pointedly going back to his reading.

They sit in silence for another minute before he hears her intake of breath.

He does not want to do this.

"Sasuke, we need to talk." He knows without looking up that her eyes will be green and reproachful. Huge. Possibly shining with unshed tears.

She's been crying a lot lately. He knows, because he is the one responsible.

But he will not let her manipulate him into having a conversation he vehemently did not want to have, not for all the sad green eyes in the world. Not even if his hands itched to comb wayward strands of pink back from her face. Not even if she does, actually, cry.

She falls silent once more, long fingers uncurling themselves from the mug only to spread themselves on the table. He notes her movements out of the corner of his eye, watches the slim digits start tapping out an unknown melody against the peeling wood.

He will only speak to Sakura, he thinks to himself, to politely ask her to stop the drumming. He cannot concentrate, he will say, and then direct his eyes back to the text in front of him before he could be caught by her face, her expression, her voice—the familiarity in all her little gestures.

"Sasuke, I'm leaving," she says in response to his quiet request.

He freezes. Finally puts the book down.

"The café." He levels his eyes at her, taking off his glasses with deliberate movements.

She sighs, a single puff of air that ruffles her bangs. "No. Konoha. I'm leaving Konoha. I've been offered a very good position at a top ranking hospital in Suna," she slants a look at him from beneath lowered lashes, "And besides, I think…I think it'd do both of us good to spend some time apart. Maybe when I come back things can…things can go back to the way it was before."

It will never be the same, he wants to say. Not when he knew what her naked skin felt like under his hands now. Not when he could imagine perfectly the weight of her long legs locking themselves around his waist or the feel of her breasts in his palms. Not after he'd catalogued every inch of her by sight and taste and touch.  
>When he closes his eyes he can still recall the hushed, quiet sounds she makes under him, the exact green of her eyes as she reaches her peak. And it is then that he decides that even if he'd been the one to break her heart in the first place, he cannot, <em>will not<em>, lose her—

He drowns himself in the memories for a moment, and by the time he resurfaces she is already gone, a crumpled ten-dollar bill lying on top of the table.

Her cup of coffee is empty.

**fin**

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><p><strong>a<strong>/n: Sooo this will be the repository for all my week one drabbles for SSM! Day 1 is separate because it's much, much longer than any of the ficlets you'll find in here. I'll be doing this for the rest of the month too; one long oneshot per week, with the rest of the prompts relegated to drabbles. I hope everyone else is enjoying SSM as much as I am! And feedback is always loved.

Will probably edit again in the morning...


	2. last words

**title:** last words**  
>for:<strong> SasuSaku Month, Day 6.  
><strong>theme:<strong> Alternate Universe  
><strong>prompt:<strong> Hello/Goodbye  
><strong>note:<strong> Yeah, I know this is out of order, but this was the last thing I'd prewritten for week 1 and I didn't want to wait until I'd written stuff for the days I'd missed to post this. I'll write something less angsty...soon. Maybe. Hopefully?

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><p>Sakura finds out that grief comes in all forms.<p>

She is standing at a stranger's grave; her cheeks are dry, eyes rusting over with the detached sort of indifference that came with not personally knowing the deceased.

This man had died so she could live. He'd taken a bullet for her, shoving the pink-haired woman aside a split second after he spotted the gun, a split second too late. One moment he'd been alive and breathing and then the next he was convulsing on the ground, red blooming across stark white dress shirt.

No. He hadn't been a stranger.

They'd been together constantly over the course of five months, two weeks and six days. She knew him by the dark spikes of his hair and the sharp planes of his face. She knew him by his gait and the thin press of his lips when he was displeased.

She knew him…by the flex of his naked shoulders underneath her wandering hands and the taste of the paper pale skin of his neck.

She _knows him_.

Sakura had never spoken to her bodyguard if she could help it, and it was the same for him. She only knew his name because she had read his file before her aides had hired him. The only time words were exchanged between the two were under the cover of night or inside conveniently placed linen closets. Even then it was never more than whispered moans.

Except…

When she met her new bodyguard for the first time, she'd said hello.

He'd said nothing.

Because Sakura is Sakura—because she adapts and adjusts—she'd sealed her lips too, and she would be lying if she said it wasn't at least a little out of spite. She'd wondered at him, that this one man could make one of the highest ranking officials and the best damned doctor in the country (maybe the world, but she's never been one for pride, that was his forte) feel sixteen all over again.

He touched Sakura for the first time one day in early December. It was exactly one month and seven days since he'd started working for her, the gesture an automatic sweep of the arm to prevent her from tripping and falling over a crack in the sidewalk that she hadn't seen herself.

His touch was brief, business-like, impersonal.

Two weeks later, they slept together.

He died in March. It'd been a chilly day; spring was late in coming this year.

She appreciates that today—the day of his funeral—is the first filled with sunshine. He'd never liked metaphors; irony had been much more to his taste.

Not many show at his funeral; it is a state affair, because before he became her bodyguard he was a soldier in the Special Forces. She stands up front in a place of prominence and honor, and thinks about how she had not wanted to come.

The speech the priest makes is trite and recycled, more about the honor of dying in service to his country than anything about the man himself. She seethes a little, there. Because she feels like the world deserves to know about his caustic wit, the way he could dissect someone in a single look, all the second chances he gave out despite his stubbornness, the millions of everythings and nothings he could communicate in a single wry glance.

They hadn't talked because they hadn't needed to.

She stays long after the others leave, standing over his grave, staring hard at the engraved letters of his epitaph.

…_Beloved Son, Brother, Best Friend, Soldier._

Soldier saved for last, as if it'd been the most important part of his life. Sakura wonders whose son he was, whose brother, whose best friend. She hadn't seen anyone else who could've been his family. There were no dark haired, dark eyed mourners. No heartbroken mother to cry for her fallen son. There'd been a blond man though; who'd lingered just a little longer by his grave after the others had left. She could feel him watching her from the corner of his eye as she shifts, pretending now to notice. After a length of time he'd knelt, placed a plated dog tag with a long slash through the center on the grave and left.

She stands there just a bit longer, looking at the headstone, pink hair veiled with respectful black.

Her last word to him is goodbye.


	3. late nights and skinned knees

**title:** late nights and skinned knees**  
>for:<strong> SasuSaku Month, Day 5.  
><strong>theme:<strong> Alternate Universe  
><strong>prompt:<strong> Umbrella  
><strong>note:<strong> Prompt is so vague that it's barely there, Sasuke might be a bit OOC (I hope not), whole drabble is kind of...pointless. Hey, at least it's not angst!

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><p>Sakura sat on the curb, bleeding where her jeans had torn at the knees. The few streetlights lining the back alley street were all dark, bulbs either blown or smashed, the neighborhood too poor for the city to do anything about it.<p>

The empty windows of boarded, abandoned shops stared back at her from across the street. A closed-up shop with peeling posters advertising various sundries was directly across from her, a fading sign shaped as an umbrella creaking with every blow of the wind.

Sakura wondered if everyone else had gotten home all right. She hoped so, anyways. Taking a deep breath of stale night air, she took a moment to try and remember what'd happened tonight. There was a party. At Kiba's house. Ok, that she could work with. And then…there had been spiked punch and beer kegs, an inebriated Naruto. She'd sent her blond cousin home with Hinata. She herself hadn't touched any alcohol at all.

She couldn't remember how she'd gotten to this particular alley. She barely remembered leaving. There'd been noise, and a fight. The quiet kind with cutting words and looks that bled. She doesn't remember who she'd been fighting with or what about. Sakura only remembered the hurt.

She hoped it wasn't someone who she saw very often.

A beam of light suddenly sliced through the darkness, roving over her face, temporarily blinding her. A car followed out of the darkness, dark, quiet and expensive. It rolled to a stop in front of her, the inky windows obscuring whoever was inside. Sakura blinked, puzzled. The car looked familiar.

A quiet click signaled the driver's door opening, and then Sasuke emerged. Sasuke. Right. Huh. She didn't recall calling him. Or, for that matter, where her phone was.

Something blocked the light of the car, and she looked up to see said man standing over her, surveying her with a look that said he definitely wasn't pleased.

"Get in, Sakura."

Shrugging, she tried to stumble to her feet. He must have noticed her wince at the stinging of her knees though, because the next thing she knew he was holding her steady, always-capable hands gripping her by the arms.

Still keeping a steady grip on her, he opened the passenger door, tumbling her in before getting back into the driver's seat.

The key was still in the ignition, but Sasuke made no move to start the car again, or to leave. Instead, he sat there in silence, hands loosely gripping the steering wheel, dark eyes staring at something unfathomable straight ahead.

Sakura took the opportunity to study him. Even if she pretended she was over him and her preadolescent crush, she would never deny that Sasuke had always been beautiful.

She couldn't make out his features in the dark, but Sakura has him so memorized that she didn't need to see his face to imagine the stark lines that shaped it. But she did take the moment to appreciate the shape of him in the shadows, a bulwark between her and the rest of the night. He made her feel safe. He'd always made her feel safe.

She smiled drowsily at the realization, a puff of air escaping her lips in a sigh.

The small sound seemed to snap the man in question out of his reverie, and with a twist of his hands the car silently came to life.

She'd nearly drifted off to sleep when she saw him leaning over her through her lashes, features now lit by the glow of the dashboard. The same pair of strong hands that'd held her up earlier was now snapping the seatbelt in place around her waist.

"Thanks, Sasuke-kun," she mumbled.

"I'll get you something for your knee when we get back to my place," he replied, giving that specific part of her anatomy a pointed glance.

"You don't have to do that. I'm a big girl now; I can take care of myself."

This time he kept his eyes straight on the road. Sakura took a second to admire his profile, the straight nose, the strong jaw, the long lashes. She wondered what he was thinking about.

"Shikamaru called and told me what happened. You can't keep doing shit like that, Sakura. One of us might not be there to help you out next time," he said in way of reply.

Fully awake now, her eyes flashed at his words. She remembered now, some sleaze had been hitting on Ino and she'd stepped in. She hadn't expected her best friend to be thankful but she hadn't anticipated her fury either, or the word _bitch _spat out quietly and left for her on the floor before Shikamaru had towed the blond away.

"Sorry for being such a bother, _Sasuke-kun_, it's not like I asked you to come and pick me up. What, did I interrupt your beauty sleep? The fangirls will despair tomorrow when you show up for classes with bags under your eyes."

Sasuke didn't react to the sarcastic barb, his grip only tightened around the steering wheel. "Do you know what people tend to think when they get a call from someone like Nara at three in the morning? He sounded _worried_, Sakura." They'd made it through two more streets. His voice was level, but tense, unsettled.

She bit her lip, unwilling to look at him, unwilling to feel guilty.

She didn't last even half as long as he did.

"I'm sorry. I won't…I'll be more careful next time," she finally whispered.

"Promise me that next time, you'll call me yourself. Fucking hell, Sakura, don't just go wandering around deserted alleys in the middle of the night by yourself."

She looked at him then, at the pressed line of his lips, at the furrows on his forehead—she blinked, surprised. In his own Sasuke-way, he really had been worried.

"I promise. I'm sorry I worried you," she apologized again.

His shoulders visibly relaxed at her words. "Just let me get you home and fix up your knee. Sleep now, I'll tell you when we get there."

Sakura nodded, lifting her legs from the floor and curling them underneath her, burrowing into the junction between the seat and the car door. A smile curled around her lips; in Sasuke-speak, that'd been as good as him asking for permission to take care of her.

She supposed she could live with that.


	4. the other day at mickey d's

**title:** the other day at mickey d's**  
>for:<strong> SasuSaku Month, Day 3.  
><strong>theme:<strong> Alternate Universe  
><strong>prompt:<strong> Change  
><strong>note:<strong> WARNING. SASUKE IS VERY MUCH SO OOC HERE. In this universe, there is NO Uchiha Massacre. He still has his not-terminally ill brother and parents and is every bit a privileged child. I tried to adjust accordingly without making Sasuke _not_ Sasuke, but I'm not sure if it worked...Also, see the NOT-ANGST? Yeah.

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><p>"I still can't believe there's a single person who exists on this great green Earth that <em>doesn't<em> like chocolate. I just don't see how that's physically possible." Sakura sat across from Sasuke, one hand resting on the sticky fast food tabletop between them and the other gesticulating wildly in the air with a Kit-Kat bar.

Sasuke regarded her wryly from behind a bottle of water he'd just bought at the deli next door. Both of them hated McDonald's and were only there waiting for Naruto to finish picking up his order. Sakura disliked fast food on principal after a semester of watching documentaries like _Supersize Me_ and _Fast Food Nation_ and Sasuke had always preferred his own homemade tomato onigiri.

Sakura fondly referred to him as their own resident freak of nature. Sasuke's dead-pan glare was usually enough of a reply on his part.

Her latest spiel had come after he'd refused, for the hundredth time, her offer of something sweet and sugary. It wasn't a big secret that Uchiha Sasuke disliked sweets, but it never failed to get Sakura off on a rant every time.

"_Did you know,_" Sakura leaned forward conspiratorially, emphasizing her point and drawing Sasuke's attention to the view her gaping t-shirt offered, "_that sugar is the only taste that humans are born craving?"_

She moved back into her chair, looking as if she'd given him the keys to the universe.

"And?" He lazily responded.

"And? And that makes _you_, Uchiha Sasuke, a complete and total _weirdo_!"

Sasuke snorted, this was the girl who stuffed every AP language course possible into her schedule?

"Ahhh, I always love Sakura-chan's little nicknames." Naruto slid into the booth next to the girl in question, plopping a plastic tray loaded with a burger, a large order of fries, and an extra-large jumbo soda down onto the table.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, slipping his phone out of his pocket to check the time, "As much as I'm sure you enjoy being called imbecile, dumbass, moron, and idiot, among others, stuff it and start eating. Class starts in fifteen minutes."

Neither Sakura nor Naruto responded to his barb, one was too busy stuffing as much as humanly possible into his mouth and the other was watching the blond with a horrified expression on her face.

Even though the three of them had been friends since elementary school and Naruto's eating prowess was well known, it never ceased to amaze their pink-haired friend when the blond really started packing it in.

"I don't…I still don't get how it's possible to fit so _much_ in there…" She murmured, more to herself than in any kind of question directed towards Sasuke.

"I told you. The loser's not human," he answered anyways, scoffing and taking another sip of his water.

"If he was a machine the soda would short out his circuits, so not a robot. An alien then?" Sakura furrowed her brows seriously, appearing deep in thought. Naruto sputtered through a mouthful of burger, but Sasuke could see the small smile threatening to curve her lips.

He smirked, "Definitely something extraterrestrial."

"We should turn him in to Kakashi-sensei. He could run experiments on him with the freshmen." She was definitely grinning now, smile slightly higher on the right than the left, giving him a front row seat to dimples and bright green eyes. Sasuke coughed and looked away awkwardly, losing the easy rhythm of their banter.

Sakura's smile faded, lips pressing themselves into a thin line as she arched a single eyebrow at him. Sasuke couldn't explain it, but lately…lately the only girl he allowed himself to associate willingly with regularly had been doing strange things to him.

"Sasuke. Hey. Are you freaking out on us again?" Naruto paused just long enough in his chomping to stare expectantly up at him when Sakura asked the question. When no answer seemed forthcoming the girl rolled her eyes and scoffed.

"He's just pms-ing like usual, don't worry about it Sakura-chan."

The girl in question looked at Naruto in surprise, mouth now empty and the tray before him completely cleared, "Who said I was worried? And _wow_, I think that's a new record."

Her reply slightly stung, even if he knew she hadn't meant it. When the other two failed to make a move, he gestured pointedly towards his phone.

"Alright, alright, Mr. Sourpuss. We're moving," Sakura slid out of the booth, stretching a pair of very long, toned legs in the process, creamy skin exposed by a pair of denim cut-offs.

Sasuke swallowed, determined to appear unaffected even if Naruto was trying and failing to keep his salivating hidden.

Sakura only looked amused, before shaking her head with an exasperated, "_Boys_."

Once Naruto had thrown out his trash, the trio made their way to the entrance. Sasuke made sure he held the door for Sakura. Naruto grinned at the gesture, "Thanks, Sasuke-teme!"

The Uchiha only shook his head imperceptibly, making sure to let go of the door before Naruto could follow. He left the blond spluttering behind him, trailing a foot behind Sakura, who was already rummaging in her bag for her scan-in ID.

He'd been trying to sneak little gestures like that for the past…two months, ever since that one incident last summer involving a pool, Sakura and a slipping bikini top. At first he'd been furious with the way his hormones were finally catching up to him, but then an amused Itachi had seen fit to go and question his _manhood_ and that had settled it. Uchiha Sasuke was going to make Haruno Sakura his first girlfriend, at the young, tender age of seventeen.

It'd made a lot of sense at the time. She was his closest female friend and a very attractive girl. She'd even been infatuated with him back when they were younger, before she realized that the only thing he'd wanted from her had been friendship.

So he'd spent the last eight weeks opening doors and buying drinks and lending her his jacket if she ever got cold at the movies. He'd gotten her small, meaningless gifts that he'd tried to pass off as things he'd just conveniently had lying around the house. Answered her calls at three in the morning when she was worried about this or that and drove her home if she stayed out too late at parties. For Sasuke, a guy used to looking at the world through a spectrum of _what-would-benefit-me-the-most_, it'd been a disconcerting experience, to say the least.

But Sakura, he thought, Sakura would be worth it. It wasn't _just_ breasts and legs and pouty pink lips—that he could find anywhere (although he had doubts about that particular shade of green)—it was…

It was Sakura and her stupid nicknames. Her big, big brain and even bigger heart. It was the way she always stopped and listened to whatever sob story the latest bum slumming it in the subway station had for her. It was the way she was willing to stay up all night tutoring Naruto in whatever subject he was failing and the way she would always drag him with her on those stupid walks to the park every Saturday morning, naming every rock (metamorphic!), tree (American Dogwood or Cornus florida!) and shrub (Abelia mosanensis!) on the way, all in the name of _science._

It was—

Sasuke groaned, Itachi had been right: _he was so far gone_.

Fuck it, Sasuke thought. If after months of gifts and subtle compliments and _niceness_ she _still_ didn't get it, then she never would. He would have to employ a more direct plan of assault.

"Sasuke? You okay?" Sakura looked at him strangely from besides the crosswalk, Naruto next to her (when had he caught up?). Sasuke frowned, apparently he'd just stopped walking in the middle of the street.

"Be my girlfriend." There. That hadn't been so hard.

The signal changed to "walk", but Sakura only stood there, one hand on her hip, the other curled around the straps of her bag. She looked confused.

(Ok. He could work with confused, confused was better than horrified or repulsed, right? Right. Confused it is. Well, it wasn't exactly the earth-shattering joy that he'd have preferred, but that could change. Confusion meant it could go both ways, confusion could give way to that huge, blinding smile that he liked to see so much, so yeah, there was hope, wasn't there? She had to say yes, and he had to stop being so nervous, because he was Uchiha Sasuke and Uchiha Sasuke _did not have girl problems_. Otherwise Itachi would laugh at him because he's already had a million girlfriends and—)

"Um, Sasuke-kun, haven't I _been_?"

"Uh," he said (not stuttered, because Uchiha do not stutter), "Really, now?"

Even Naruto stopped and blinked, "Haven't you?"

Sakura quirked an eyebrow, "The door holding, the gifts…? And I've noticed you sneaking your arm behind me when we go to the movies, Sasuke."

Sasuke flushed, he didn't think she'd noticed. But the indignity of not having caught on to something when _Naruto_ had? That was something he was not going to deal with.

"I never technically asked you before now," he retorted.

She laughed now, but it wasn't a mean sound. Walking over to where he still stood, Sakura crossed her arms and tilted her head, letting the sunlight hit her face just so. Sasuke swallowed.

"Oh please, like you'd have put up with me calling you at some ungodly hour in the middle of the night before, like I would have let you pick me up if there was even the _danger_ of me being wasted. I could've called Naruto all those times, Sasuke. But I didn't. I already knew what you were trying to say in that weird, Sasuke-y way of yours." She smiled up at him, that big, brilliant grin he'd been hoping for.

_This was why he loved, ok, fine, _liked Sakura very strongly_, it was because she _got_ him, and she wasn't as annoying as any of the other girls and because, well, ok, kind of also because she's hot. But he liked her brain and her heart first! So he could add "because she's hot" to the list, right—?_

"Um, Sasuke-kun? Do you think you can stop whatever crazy thing you've got going on in your head so I can get my first kiss now?"

He smirked in triumph, sliding his arms around Sakura's waist, her's now looped securely around his neck. _Take that, Itachi!_

And then she yanked his lips down to hers and for once, Uchiha Sasuke wasn't thinking so much anymore.

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><p><strong>an:** Still so behind with the prompts. orz Awkward!Sasuke was fun to write though, if only because I like torturing him. :)


	5. in the beginning

**title:** in the beginning**  
>for:<strong> SasuSaku Month, Day 4.  
><strong>theme:<strong> Alternate Universe  
><strong>prompt:<strong> Burning/Ignite  
><strong>note:<strong> Short drabble is short.

* * *

><p>The Parisian streets are dark as the woman walks along the cracked pavement. The lamps remain unlit even though it is now nine in the evening. Her breath curls in the cold, and the distant glow of lights from across the Seine offers only a glimpse of her features.<p>

The woman is unperturbed though; her steps are unhurried and her heels strike an even rhythmic click in the otherwise silent night. Her thin stockings are no match for the frigid winter cold, and she huddles deeper into her pea coat.

She thinks of the city bustle, lit and alive just a few miles away, and then she thinks of her empty apartment, small and sparsely furnished. There is a slight pause in her steps as she wonders whether she should visit her friends, maybe attend that one party she'd been invited to.

She doesn't know if she desires the solitude of her home or the reassurances of other people. There is a yearning in her tonight, in the garters around her slim legs and the pearls around her throat.

The word is _restless_, and if she was more poetic or less…if she was more poetic she might've opted for tragic instead.

The world is alive and _moving forward_ around her, and she, she is ready to move too, she is _dressed_ to be ready, so why was nothing ever happening why was nothing ever…

A streetlamp bursts into life at the end of the block, and a man, hair dark and spiked moves underneath the light. He looks up, slate eyes meeting hers, and their breaths simultaneously catch at the sight of someone neither has seen for years—

Something is beginning, here.


	6. watch your mouth

**title:** watch your mouth**  
>for:<strong> SasuSaku Month, Day 7.  
><strong>theme:<strong> Alternate Universe  
><strong>prompt:<strong> "Fix You"  
><strong>note: <strong>The dialogue alternates. We start with Sakura, then Sasuke, then Sakura, then Sasuke again, etc. It's really interesting because you can see my mind kind of deteriorating along with Sakura's vocabulary as it gets later and later. Ah well. DONE WITH WEEK ONE, FINALLY.

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><p>"I don't need you to save me."<p>

"You're being silly."

"No. No, Sasuke. I'm not. I used to be romantic and a wisher and a bit of an, of an _airhead_ sometimes, but I was never silly. And now I am realistic and pragmatic and a _doer_, but that doesn't matter to you, does it?"

"Sakura-"

"No, don't you _Sakura _me. Listen, just listen for once in your life. I know you think I'm...I'm some sort of little girl that you have to take care of, and bail out, and pat on the back or some shit when things go wrong, but I'm not. I'm a fucking adult now. Deal with it."

"Very adult language."

"Excuse me, is this _amusing_ to you? Are you getting some stupid, superiority kick out of this?"

"I think you need to calm down."

"No, _no_. Being calm is _your _thing. There are appropriate times for being calm and appropriate times for freaking out and throwing a bottle at your head."

"...if this is one of the latter I think I should leave right around now."

"I'm a motherfucking _ninja,_ asshole, and everyone thinks this is some stupid metaphor for me fixing myself through fixing you but _fuck them_, and fuck _you_, Sasuke-

"Sakura, are you drunk?"

"-and screw them and their stupid expectations. Just because I have pink hair and I'm a medic doesn't mean I'm some sort of _Konoha's sweetheart_. Someone legitimately called me that on the streets yesterday. Hey, _I can be badass. I break buildings with a single freaking finger, _I am a _combat medic_, I fight and shit-"

"You _are_ drunk. I'm taking you home."

"-and I've _talked to your brother. _Do you know how much balls that takes, Sasuke? _Do you?_ Because your brother is freaking intimidating and just-Hey, _what the hell put me down _right. Now!"

"This for your own good. Obviously you can't be trusted to take yourself back to your apartment."

"I so can! You know this is just another example of your stupid alpha male complex and your completely erroneous assumption that I need saving in the first place-"

"You're very articulate for a drunk person."

"That's because I'm _not drunk_, therefore you can_ put me down now, thanks_."

"The three empty bottles of sake says otherwise."

"I can hold my liquor thank you very much."

"You're welcome."

"Okay, you know what? That condescending attitude? That tone of voice and your _refusal to put me down_? It's all just another example of you refusing to acknowledge that I'm a grown woman-"

"Big words for someone hanging upside down from my shoulder."

"Just let me off!"

"Ok. Fine. You win. Here. And don't expect me to help you up either."

"No need to be a jackass about it, Sasuke. And was that so hard?

"...how anyone would ever call you _Konoha's sweetheart_ with a mouth like that, I'll never know."

"See, that's just another way society makes us women conform into predetermined molds! We're ninja, for god's sake. With all the killing and whooshing and bamming we do you'd think there'd be no place for those stereotypes with shinobi, right? But _nooooo_, this job is just as freaking sexist as the next mmmmmmmmf!"

"..."

"..."

"...Shikamaru might've been on to something here. If I knew a kiss was all it took to shut you up, I would've done it a long time ago."

"_Excuse me? That is the most disrespectful and not to mention cliched way to_ stldmmmmmmfffffff."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"You were saying?"

"..."

"I thought so."

* * *

><p><strong>an:** He kissed her. If it wasn't clear. AU because it's non-massacre. AND I MISS YOU, WM CREW! Just...putting that out there into empty cyberspace...


End file.
